Free Thai Cinema: Tropical Malady director censored

Award-winning director Apitchatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady) has shown his films all over the world, including here in Minneapolis for a 2004 retrospective, but with his latest, he can't get a showing in his home country. The Thai director submitted Syndromes and a Century (Sang Satawat) to Thailand's Censorship Board, and was told four cuts had to be made for the film to be released commercially. Saying he treats his "works as my own sons or my daughters," Weerasethakul refused to make the cuts. Now the Thai government says they'll hold onto his film print until the four prescribed deletions are made. Thai artists have begun an online petition -- already signed by more than 4,000 people -- urging the government to return the film print, but also seeking "a long-needed modernization of Thai legislation concerning movie censorship," which is based on a law from 1930. Sign the petition here.

Lucky pig?

This unfortunate-looking two-faced pig is an indicator of luck to Thais in Mookdahan Province, according to Thai-Blogs. Villagers sought out the piglet in hopes of learning lucky numbers for the national lottery. Richard Barrow writes that Thais "look for anything auspicious or unusual" to improve their lottery chances:

One was the footprints of a Naga snake on top of a car. People were looking for numbers in the patterns. Another was a pig which had two faces. Today comes another story from the Thai Rath newspaper. A man from Udornthanee bought a betel nut palm to decorate his restaurant. After a short while, he noticed that the leaves of the plant were growing into the shape of the King of the Nagas, a highly respected serpent snake. As soon as the locals heard about this they came flocking to his restaurant to pay respect and also to beg for the winning lottery numbers!